I was correct, screw golems, the mana core is where it’s at. It works similarly to enchantments, as if you’re enchanting a heart/brain into an object. The ‘AI’ is not quite a computer, but it can control its ‘body’, sense and interpret its surroundings and follow orders, so I’m pretty sure it’s even more advanced than an early computer.

By itself, it’s already a key to a magical industrial revolution, and it was locked down for three hundred years because some idiot used some principles in it to try to revive his dead girlfriend. Oh, the humanity!

Let’s see, where do I even start? Let’s just throw some ideas around and see what would be best to begin with.

Transportation and communication. Gathering raw materials. Processing raw materials. Manufacturing. Military applications and Security. Intelligence gathering. Construction… I think that’s about it, I doubt I can do anything for individual civilian use.

Goddamnit, this just made the Pilgrim Mk.1 obsolete, didn’t it?

I bet I’m forgetting something, but I’m sure I'll remember with time. I’m certain I can make some vehicles, like cars, trains and ships- PUBLIC ILLUMINATION! That’s a good one!

I need to learn how to make roads and railroads too, the one I used for the airplane tests was just me cheating with magic and bricks.

I need to hurry and brainstorm specific ideas and decide where to start. “Lance, why are you so excited about this stuff?” Asks Athena.

“This ‘stuff’, as you call it, will allow humanity to take its next step as an enlightened species, Athena! It’s like the difference between goblins and us! While they play in the mud, we’ll be soaring the skies!”

“... I think I understand why you’re so excited, but I’m not so sure airplanes can elevate humanity as an enlightened species, Lance. A barbarian with an airplane would still be a mere barbarian.” Reasons Athena.

“I don’t mean airplanes...” ...Oh, wait. She’s kind of right. Even if I kickstart an industrial revolution, medieval people will still think as medieval people, except with trains and lower cost of living. I sigh.

Most of the country’s population are farmers living with minimal knowledge of anything aside from their work, that’s all fine and dandy, except they are also very used to death. Healers aren’t very common at all and it’s normal for out of a couple’s five children, one or two might die from some disease or another.

Our country is lucky in that we mostly don’t lack food and have a good monarch who holds most of the power, but everything else is

That won’t stop me from making stuff, but if I want to live in a more advanced country, culture has to advance with the tech.

So I don’t only need to make the tech, but write books and start schools, huh? Well, there goes my childhood.

Let’s begin with just making some tech, at least that’s simple.

~~

I first made communication devices based on detection magic. One can write something on a glass screen and press a button, the mana core would send the writing through a spell towards the targeted device. It comes with two glass screens, one for receiving and one for sending.

I just call it ‘arcane telegraph Mk.1’, no need to complicate things.

The range isn’t anything to boast about, but it can connect most towns, and those that it can’t, I just make a relay station that doesn’t even need to be manned. The main problem is that if you use it too much, it will run out of mana, but that’s just a side effect of me trying to make it small, I can just send a bigger mana core to places that need it.

The most difficult part was encrypting the message so that they can’t be spied on or faked.

I’m sure it isn’t optimized at all when compared to modern earth’s telecommunications, but it’s much better than using birds.

It was a pain to make them all for the whole country, so I made some golems to do the more basic parts while I concentrate on the mana cores.

After that was done and I made some backup telegraphs and went on to my next project.

Since that’s communications done, let’s go for transportation. For starters I made a simple car, it was quite easy, honestly, since I already made carriages before and even an airplane.

Then I made a small truck, still quite easy, so I tried making a car with tracks, like a tank would have. This took me more time, but I still succeeded, magic just makes things that easy.

Although they aren’t as advanced as modern day vehicles, they’re good enough.

The royal family is the one giving me the materials to make this stuff by the way. After I showed them the telegraph I got their interest quite easily.

I made a few tens of each kind and gave them to the royal family, how they are going to be used is not my problem to think about, they’re better than horses, though.

Now comes the big one, I’m making a goddamn train!... and the railroad, although roads are more boring, they are needed.

If I didn’t have to practice swordsmanship with Athena it would go faster. Sometimes Eleanor and auntie, who work as teachers in the royal castle, would come to practice with us.

Athena spends most of her time improving her swordsmanship or leadership by doing 100 vs 100 practice battles, guess who has to build the dirt castles and heal the wounded? Even the princess would participate from time to time.

~ Time skip ~

I’m currently nine years old, I’m already mostly done with land transportation, when I’m finished making the first railroad I’ll move on to something else, probably sea transportation?

“Lance, why do you need to know so many details about the land?” Asks auntie. “Don’t you just need to follow the highway?” She and Eleanor are having tea with Athena and I in my living room in the royal castle’s guest quarters.

“I need to see where building bridges and digging tunnels would be better than just following the road.” Right now I’m planning a railway that connects the capital in the southeast with Turin in the north. “I might as well make a new highway while I’m at it.” The current highway is just a wide dirt road, I can’t make asphalt, but the least I could do is make a road that doesn’t get super muddy when it rains.

The crown princess will be marrying the second prince from Endel kingdom, the small snowy and mountainous country to the north, in a few years. Trade will most likely increase even faster than it has until now, if we have trains connecting the capital to Turin, it should help the entire country’s economy.

“Is this ‘train’ of yours really better than using ships?” Asks Eleanor. “I’m not doubting you, it’s just hard to believe.”

“Yes, trains aren’t as fast as planes, but they are pretty damn fast and can carry a lot of weight. I’m pretty sure that even if I’m the one making the ships using mana cores, they won’t be able to go faster than the train.” I explain. “The advantages of ships is that you don’t need roads or anything of the sort and that carrying a lot of cargo can be easier.”

Wait, now that I think about it, doesn’t this mean that it would be better for the economy if I made ships?... Whatever, I’ll make some later, ships can be stolen, but trains can’t.

“LANCE!” Shouts the princess as she barges in.

“Your highness, even if you’re soon-to-be queen, you should still knock.” Says auntie.

I nod. “It’s only polite.”

“Screw polite! I’ve come to request a gift for my crowning!” Uh-oh, I don’t like where this is going. “Lance! I want you to rebuild the royal castle!”

The room falls into silence. Fuck, this will delay everything. Knowing her, she doesn’t want just a strong castle, but a beautiful one. “Uhh, your highness, isn’t the current castle perfectly fine?”

“That’s the problem! It’s just fine! I don’t want ‘fine’, I want majestic! A castle worthy of our great country and ME, it’s beautiful future queen.” Ah, fuck, I wish she was despotic so I had a reason to start a revolution. As she is now, one could say she wastes the country’s resources, but one could also say this improves the country’s prestige.

Knowing me, when I start designing the castle I’ll get carried away and try to make a flying castle or some other stupid nonsense. “How about after I’m done with the railway, I make some decorations for the current castle, Your highness?”

“No! Work on the railway is to be halted! I want the castle rebuilt from the ground up!” Fuck, I shouldn’t have mentioned the railway. “I want the construction plans done in a year at most!” She declares before she stomps away.

I sigh. If I talk to the current queen I should be able to get the railway started, but I doubt she didn’t agree to this castle business already.

“Work hard, Lance.” Says Eleanor.

“You’ll be fine, you’re good at this kind of thing.” Consoles auntie.

“I’m sure the castle you make will end up great.” Encourages Athena.

“I’m sure too, I only worry about how long it would take and how tiring it would be.” I sigh again.

~~

Okay, I completed the railway business and got the construction started, the trains are already done and other sorcerers will help with building everything. This together with the new castle is bound to put a dent on the queendom’s coffers. I should offer blacksmithing and enchanting services to nobles and Endel’s royalty to contribute to the national economy.

But that’s after I’m done with the castle plans.

A castle is, in essence, a fort where a lord of some kind lives in. So, if you want to boil it down to its essentials, it has two simple priorities: safety and comfort. In the royal castle’s case, it can also serve to awe and inspire those who see it, welcome visiting dignitaries and that kind of thing.

When it comes to comfort, the castle would need plenty of space and have everything the lord would need in their daily life.

In the royal castle’s case, the castle would need to have plenty of luxuries and decorations, like pools and gardens, maybe even an open field for horse riding. This would make the construction lengthier and more expensive, but that’s not my problem, but the future queen’s.

When it comes to safety, the point is not for the castle or fort to be indestructible, the idea alone is silly, you can’t make something you can’t destroy. What you can make, is something so hard to take over that it becomes impractical.

The point of fortifications is to give the defenders such an advantage that the attacker would need to waste tons of men, time and resources to break through. This would normally be done by giving the defending archers or catapults plenty of defence from the invaders. Only rarely would the defenders actually fight in a melee, and even then, they would funnel the enemy, making the invaders’ numbers less important.

The main methods of siege are the following:

Break through the front gate and defeat the defenders inside. The most basic method. Climb or break through the walls and defeat the defenders inside. Just like the first one except you ‘cheat’ by ignoring the well defended front gate. Have men infiltrate the castle to open the gates and defeat the defenders with a surprise attack. Stop the defenders from receiving supplies and let them starve until they surrender. Very costly on the time department, since castles often have stockpiles of non-perishables and use wells for water, bigger castles may even have small farms inside like back home.

So when designing a castle, one should make it impractical to attack anywhere other than the front entrance, essentially preventing number two. Having multiple, layered gates can make it harder for infiltrators to do much, since they would need large numbers and that makes stealth harder.

For the fourth method, one could have a farm big enough to sustain all defenders, or have a secret entrance that allows the castle to be supplied secretly, although that entrance could become a security risk.

And for the first one, one should make attacking the front a true hell where the invaders are vulnerable to the defender’s attacks from all directions while the defenders have plenty of protection.

If you can make it so the attackers have no choice but to attack the front, and then kill thousands of them while they are trying, odds are the enemies’ morale will fall through the floor and the men will refuse orders to attack the front, forcing them to do the impractical and attack some other side or waste time waiting around for the defenders to starve when they are actually still receiving food.

Just imagining an army’s chain of command falling apart because attacking is suicide brings a smile to my face.

With that thought I get lost in my ideas.

~ PoV Switch + time skip ~

My brother hasn’t left his room in the last week. At the beginning he would just skip sword practice and eat his meals in his room with the excuse that he was busy, but since three days ago he stopped responding and receiving food.

*Bang!* Eleanor kicks the enchanted door once, it’s unlocked but Lance put something in the way on the other side. *Bang!* *Bang!* On the third kick the door breaks open and the furniture holding it closed scatters.

We enter the room and the moment we stepped in, everyone becomes stunned. There is paper everywhere, even the walls and ceiling, scribbles and drawings on every piece of paper.

After a couple moments I remember what I’m here for. “Lance! Where are you?!” I shout as I look around. My shout wakes up aunt Alexandra and Lady Eleanor from their stunned state.

After a while I find Lance passed out on the floor. “Lance! Lance! Wake up!” I shout as I shake his shoulders.

His eyelids tremble as they open slightly, his dry lips open as if to say something, but he’s too quiet.

I bring my ear closer to his mouth. “I did it… It’s finally… done.” What does he mean? Was he attacked?

I notice his hand moving. He points to a corner of the room with a wall sized painting in it. “What in the world?” I mutter when I see the painting.

“What? What did he say?” Asks aunt Alexandra.

“Look.” I point to the painting and they follow my finger.

““... What the hell?”” They mutter at the same time.

In the painting there is an enormous castle in an island surrounded by another island shaped like a ring with walls and towers in it on the water of the capital's bay. There are towers with something similar to ballistas spread out everywhere and an enormous bridge connecting the castle to the rest of the capital.

“That’s one way to interpret ‘from the ground up’.” Says auntie.